From the Principal

Hello Lawrence Families + Caregivers –

I hope you are able to spend some of the next 4 days caring for yourself and your loved ones. I plan on getting a Christmas tree with my family on Friday and continuing to read my new book, The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown in between laundry and other momma duties. I am looking forward to being with my kids. We are going to try to make a homemade pumpkin pie, I bought an apple pie as a back up, just in case. 😉

There continues to be lots of great things happening at Lawrence. This week, I got the chance to spend some time in a kindergarten classroom while they worked on learning how to estimate. Some of our third grade students participated in a Wampanoag feast and made authentic corn cakes as part of their immersion in the unit. And of course last week we had two amazing events – Japanese Food Fair and Apple Pie Making Day!

Here are some other events to add to your calendar:

November 28 – PTO meeting in the library @ 9 am

November 29 – Early release @ 12:40

November 30 – Evening Conferences

December 5 – School Council in the library @ 8 am, early release @ 12:40 + Movie Day – Busy day!

December 8 – Community Meeting hosted by 5E + Gingerbread House Making (Contact Kelly Pesanelli kpesan@bu.edu or Maureen Fallon fallon_maureen@yahoo.com for questions or how to get involved in our gingerbread event!)

A couple of reminders:

Please make arrangements for child pick-up at the end of the day. M-TH school ends at 2:30 and on Fridays at 1:40. Early release days for December are posted throughout the building and are typically a 12:40 end time. If you need support with afterschool care, Mary Gardiner from LEDP has some possible openings. Please contact her directly.

Profe. Kern is leading our ADL (Anti-defamation League) work with 7th and 8th grade students; this is also a program that several other Brookline schools are participating in. Selected middle school students (application process) will attend four full days of training at Wheelock College on 12/6, 12/12, Jan. 4 + 10. Profe. is currently reviewing applications and will share student selections in the coming days.

Our 8th graders will have a community service requirement for graduation in which they will be complete 10 hours of community service as part of their 8th grade experience – We believe strongly in giving back as an act of altruism and see the importance in having our students serve in this way. We are currently working as a team to finalize some details for accountability. If you have any connections to agencies/organizations that may be willing to have some of our students volunteer with them, please let me know.

Profe. Kern and Debbie Caruso have also organized a relief effort to benefit families in Puerto Rico, please give as you see fit. Families and children in Puerto Rico have had a difficult year. As you know, some have lost their homes, all of their belongings and are still without power or water. Help us send some joy this holiday season!

November 27th-December 5th: We will be collecting new toys and gifts to give to children in Puerto Rico as part of Caravana NaviDar, a non-profit that is gathering toys for more than 700 children on the island.

There are three ways you can help out:

1. Please bring any wrapped or unwrapped items to school and leave them in the box in the lobby labeled “Gifts for Puerto Rico”.

School District News and Updates

On Thursday May 10th the School Committee will vote to approve a proposal to have the Lawrence Library named for beloved former librarian Iris Feldman, who recently passed away. Click here to read more...

Next week the School Committee will be considering Superintendent Bott’s recommendation to name current Co-Director of Special Education Casey Ngo-Miller to be the Interim Deputy Superintendent of Student Services. Click here for more...

School Committee Candidate Forum

Fri, May 4th, 8-9am, Runkle Cafeteria, 50 Druce Street.
Brookline community members are invited to attend the upcoming morning forum at Runkle School, to ask questions and hear from the six School Committee candidates (Jennifer Monopoli, David Pearlman, Barbara Scotto, Nathan Shrpritz, Sara Stoutland and Jim Swaim.)

3-Year Override Funding Plan to be Discussed March 6

Select Board Chair Neil Wishinsky has developed a 3-Year Override Funding Plan for discussion at the Select Board meeting on Tuesday evening, March 6. This includes a summary of the plan and a detailed listing of accounts/items to be funded, broken down by year and source of funding.

The Board will discuss the Override Plan on March 6 but will defer a final vote until March 13.